Being born in Invercargill, the capital city of New Zealand’s South Island, the Chief Executive Officer of Rocket Lab is now Sir Peter Beck, having just been appointed by King Charles III as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Peter has also been presented with the Gold Medal from the Royal Aeronautical Society, Meritorious Medal from the New Zealand Division of the Royal Aeronautical Society and Cooper Medal and Pickering Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand. In addition, in recognition of Peter’s outstanding contributions to aerospace, entrepreneurship and technical innovation, he was appointed as an adjunct professor in aerospace engineering by the University of Auckland. Sir Peter Beck is the President and Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of the company.
His once, rather small rocket firm is now an impressive industry leader in the launch of satellites and related products for firms situated across the globe and the company posts an impressive valuation of $2 billion in the stock market. Rocket Lab employs more than 1,800 professionals and is only bested by Elon Musk’s SpaceX as far as the firm’s prolificity of launches.
Sir Beck’s firm has launched more than 1,700 missions for companies resident all over the world and such have included the James Webb Space Telescope for NASA; to solar power for spacecraft, star trackers, composite structures, reaction wheels, separation systems, radios and more.
Rocket Lab operates facilities in Virginia, New Mexico and Maryland in the U.S., Toronto, Canada, with headquarters in New Zealand. The latest successful launch for the company, as of this writing, occurred on May 25th with the launch of two, NASA PREFIRE satellites.